Accolades or Accountability?

Everyone likes to be noticed. When my wife comes home from the salon, she wants me to notice her new hair color. When I come home from work, my daughter wants me to notice how good she is at her "shots." Let me interpret, she means how good she is at shooting the basketball. My son wants me to notice how He has prepared the fire pit to burn his science and math notes from last year. (The last two happened just this week). We all are looking to get promoted, not just for the financial benefits, but because it's nice to be recognized. If you're outgoing like me, you might want the spotlight. But as I learned a few years ago, as a preacher of the gospel, I have a much higher calling. God doesn't call me to accolades, but He does call me to accountability. If there's one lesson I've learned that's impacted me more than any other, it's that everything is borrowed. Our abilities, our time on this earth, our time with our kids, our influence, our finances, even our difficulties...even cancer, even financial problems, even relational conflicts.

I have the privilege of being in two discipleship groups. One is following the F260 we are reading with the church right now, the other I started some months back so we are actually in 1 Corinthians. Today we ran across my life verse and it was a very poignant reminder to me, one that I thought I would share with you.

Highlight:

'A person should think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God. In this regard, it is required that managers be found faithful. It is of little importance to me that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even judge myself. For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me. So don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God. ' 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Explain:

In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul outlines for us how we should regard the ministry. The context really stems back from the end of chapter 3 that teaches us that everything belongs to Christ and that everything we have has been given to us through the Son. Paul had no reason to boast and he didn’t want people boasting about being his disciple (instead of someone else’s). The point here is that Paul felt that the measure of influence that He had was entrusted to Him by God. He saw Himself as both a servant and a manager of that influence. The only thing required of an individual who has been given a trust (in this case, the only thing required of the person who had been entrusted with influence) is that they use that influence faithfully. That is they use it in the way the person who entrusted them with it would use it. He wanted them to know that He was only using the wisdom God had given him to accomplish the purposes for which that wisdom had been given to Him. In a sense Paul was telling them, I am responsible for using this wisdom not to gain accolades but to use it in accordance with how the One who entrusted me to use it would use it.

Because at the end of the day, the people who think I hung the moon are the ones who will judge the worth of my life and influence. Not even the people who think I wasted it and were critical of how I leveraged my influence. It's not even about whether or not I think I was successful. The One who judges me, according to 1 Corinthians 4:4-5 is the LORD! The LORD is the One who judges whether or not I have used my influence well, because He is the One who entrusted me with it in the first place. It's a trap to focus on the accolades or the applause of men when in the end you aren't accountable to them, you will be accountable to HIM! So you better use your influence the way He would want it used.

Apply:

This is my life verse, it’s done more for my ministry than any other verses I can recall. It has freed me from the rat race of being better than the minister down the street which apparently is as old as Paul was. People have been liking this church or this leader better than that church or that leader for centuries. As ministers of the gospel, I need to steer clear of the accolades and the criticisms of “be like this guy” or “thank you for not being like that guy”. I have to live so laser focused on using whatever level of influence God sees fit to give me to leverage that influence the way Jesus, the One who entrusted me with it would use it (3:23). Paul tells me how Jesus used it in 3:23 “and Christ belongs to God.” In other words, Jesus used the influence the Father gave Him (a paramount influence that He deserved) to bring glory to the Father. Jesus constantly pointed His ministry to the Father. I have to be so hidden in Jesus so that my ministry and my influence is pointed to people not even seeing me but instead seeing the One who entrusted me with any leadership or influence in the first place.

I also have to lead our church to do the same. As God grants us influence in our community and in the world around us, we need to leverage that influence not to draw attention to ourselves and the way we do things, but to draw attention to Jesus and how His ministry points to the Father. In the end the goal of all of our ministry (including Jesus’) was to point people to a vibrant life-giving relationship with the Father, one brimming with hope and peace and love and joy. Doing this intentionally, strategically aligns us and partners us with Jesus. We have to ask ourselves, in the end, which is more important our church’s fame or our Founder’s fame.

Respond:

Jesus help me leverage every ounce of leadership and influence You give me in such a way that it is consistent with how You used Your influence to point people to the Father. Even when that meant crowds walking away, even when it meant ridicule and mockery and scorn, even when it meant pain and suffering, even when it meant death what was most important is that the world saw their opportunity for relationship with the Father. Help me be so hidden in You that the message of the gospel and the hope of salvation is seen far more than me, our ministry, or even our church.

I'll close with the lyrics of the rapper Kevin Burgess. "KB" put it well when He said,

"For too long the church churches been clappin at weak sermons

Leaving the weak hurt, no one's changed by Sunday's service

We need discernment, check what you are affirming

Cause a church can be full of members but empty in conversions

Preach the gospel, and stand back

Look for change lives not for hand claps

Love people well, Oh they can't stand that

The church will be the church when the word is where we stand at